Abstract Structural inheritance of preexisting crustal discontinuities is widely accepted to have played a crucial role during the Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the northern Alpine foreland. It is recognised as a process that can strongly influence local fault kinematics and strain patterns. The case study presented herein is dedicated to the tectonic analysis of the Freiburg–Bonndorf–Bodensee Fault Zone (FBBFZ) located at the external margin of the northern Alpine Molasse Basin and extending into the crystalline Black Forest Massif. The structure and kinematics of this crustal-scale fault zone are investigated by means of a regional analysis of locally mapped faults, kinematic analysis of outcrop-scale fractures and slip vector modelling. The exceptional possibility of analysing the fault zone exposed from basement to cover allowed for an evaluation of interaction between precursory structures and subsequent deformation features. The results of this study show that the crystalline basement structures exposed along the FBBFZ had a strong imprint on the map-scale fault pattern observable in the Mesozoic and Tertiary sequences. Kinematic analysis of outcrop-scale fracture systems in the latter units yields evidence for local multi-directional extension and strike-slip faulting during Miocene to recent times. While these observations may evoke the interpretation of a multistage palaeostress history along the FBBFZ, slip vector modelling of a very well exposed FBBFZ segment suggests that the various strain records can alternatively be explained by one single regional stress tensor and be related to superordinate deep-seated strike-slip
deformation.